Hannah Swarton (1651 - 12 October 1708), née Joana Hibbert/Hibbard, was a New England colonial pioneer who was captured by Abenaki Indians and held prisoner for years, first in an Abenaki community and later in the home of a French family in Quebec. She was eventually freed and told her story to Cotton Mather, who used it as a moral lesson in several of his works.
Early life Joana Hibbert/Hibbard was the daughter of Robert and Joan Hibbard, baptized on 9 March 1651 at Salem, Massachusetts.Hebard, Harvey and Ralph D. Smyth, 1897 "Descendants of Robert Hebert of Salem and Beverley, Mass." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 51. Boston, MAPerley, Sidney, The History of Salem, Massachusetts, Vol. 1: 1626-1637. Salem, MA: 1924Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts, Vol 2: 1638-1670. Boston, MA: Perley, 1924George Freeman Sanborn, Robert Charles Anderson, Melinde Lutz. Great Migration 1634-1635, Vol IV, I-L New England Historic Genealogical Society, Madison, WI: 1999
She married John Swarton in Beverly, Massachusetts on 8 January 1670 or 1671.Bentley, Elizabeth Petty, Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England marriages prior to 1700. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985 They had five children in Beverly, Massachusetts:Vital Records of Beverly, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, Vol 1 - Births. Topsfield Historical Society; Topsfield, MA. Salem: Newcomb and Gauss: 1906.
Mary, died on 14 September 1674Early Records of the Town of Beverly, Essex Co., Mass., Extracted from Volume 1, Births, Marriages & Deaths. Copied by Augustus A. Galloupe, 1907 Samuel, baptized 8 November 1674 Mary, baptized 17 October 1675 John, baptized 22 July 1677 Jasper, baptized 14 June 1685 in the First Parish Church in Beverly.William Phineas Upham, Records of the First Church in Beverly, Massachusetts, 1667-1772. Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1905.
In 1687, John Swarton of Beverly received a 50-acre land grant in North Yarmouth. In his petition he said he was from the channel island of Jersey and had fought with Charles II in Flanders in the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660). The family moved from Beverly to Casco Bay in 1689, and were visited there later that year by Benjamin Church.Coleman, Emma Lewis. New England captives carried to Canada between 1677 and 1760, during the French and Indian wars. Portland, Maine: The Southworth Press, 1925.
Captivity, 1690-1695 Capture During King William's War, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the Governor General of New France, launched a campaign to drive the English from the settlements east of Falmouth, Maine.Maine History Online: "1668-1774, Settle and Strife," Maine Historical Society
On 16 May 1690, the fortified settlement on Casco Bay was attacked by a war party of 50 French-Canadian soldiers led by Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin, about 50 Abenaki warriors from Canada, a contingent of French militia led by Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière, and 300-400 additional natives from Maine, including some Penobscots under the leadership of Madockawando. Fort Loyal was attacked at the same time. About 75 men in the Casco settlement fought for four days before surrendering on 20 May, on condition of safe passage to the nearest English town. Instead, most of the men, including John Swarton, were killed, and the surviving settlers were taken captive, including Hannah Swarton and her children Samuel, Mary, John, and Jasper Swarton. One source says that of over 200 people in the fort, only 10 or 12 survived and were taken into captivity.John Thomas Hull, "The Siege and Capture of Fort Loyall: Destruction of Falmouth, May 20, 1690," A Paper Read Before the Maine Genealogical Society, June 2 1885, by John T. Hull. Printed by Order of the City Council of Portland. Owen, Strout & Company, printers, 1885
Life with the Indians Hannah Swarton's narrative describes the hardships she experienced as a prisoner among the Indians.Mather, Cotton, and Swarton, Hannah. Humiliations follow'd with deliverances. A brief discourse on the matter and method, of that humiliation which would be an hopeful symptom of our deliverance from calamity. : Accompanied and with a narrative, of a notable deliverance lately received by some English captives, from the hands of cruel Indians. And some improvement of that narrative. : Whereto is added a narrative of Hannah Swarton, containing a great many wonderful passages, relating to her captivity and deliverance. Boston, 1697 She was separated from her children at Norridgewock, Maine and later learned that her oldest son Samuel had been killed about two months after being taken prisoner. She never saw or heard of her son John again after they were separated, and she had only sporadic contact with her daughter Mary for the first three years of her captivity. She was reunited with her son Jasper in late 1695.Alden T. Vaughan, Edward W Clark, Puritans Among the Indians: Accounts of Captivity and Redemption, 1676-1724. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009
From May 1690, until February 1691, she traveled on "many weary journeys" with the Indians through the wilderness of northern Maine. She describes being starved and forced to work in the snow without adequate clothing. Hannah's native mistress was a Catholic who had been raised in an English community at Black Point (present-day Scarborough, Maine). She told Hannah that her captivity was punishment for her rejection of Catholicism. Another English captive, John York, lived with Hannah until he became too weak to work and the Abenakis killed him.
Hannah believed that her captivity and suffering were divine punishment inflicted on her for her sins, a common theme in Puritan literature of the time. In particular, Hannah identifies leaving "public worship and the Ordinances of God" by moving from Beverly, Massachusetts, to Casco Bay, a rural community "where there was no Church, or Minister of the Gospel," as a transgression, even though she probably had little choice in the matter. She also remained certain that she would eventually be delivered and would afterwards be inspired to "declare the Works of the Lord," as payment for her freedom.
Life in Quebec In February 1691, the Indians she was living with camped in Canada near the home of a French family, and Hannah was sent to beg food from them. They gave her food and treated her kindly, and Hannah asked her Abenaki master if she would be allowed to spend the night in a French home, which he agreed to. The lady of the household allowed Hannah to sleep in front of the fireplace, and the next day she brought a local innkeeper and an Englishman, who told Hannah that he, too, had been a prisoner. The two men invited Hannah to come with them to Quebec (probably Quebec City, as Quebec did not yet exist as a province), where they said they would arrange for her to be ransomed from the Indians. Hannah agreed and was taken to the home of "the Lord Intendant, Monsieur Le ...onant, who was Chief Judge, and the Second to the Governour."
He had her treated at a local hospital (probably the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec) and his wife paid a ransom to Hannah's Indian master. (Although it was common at the time for the French to "buy" English prisoners from the Indians,Letki, Elaine, "Captives of the French and Indian Wars, 1676-1763: English Slavery in Canada," Doctoral Thesis in History, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, 14 Dec 2019 the French later discouraged this practice.Bumstead, J. M. "'Carried to Canada!': Perceptions of the French in British Colonial Captivity Narratives, 1690-1760." American Review of Canadian Studies, 13 (1983): 79-96.) He then employed Hannah as a housekeeper, although she was, in effect, a slave. She was fed and clothed well, but was subjected to pressure to convert to Catholicism, which she resisted.Tara Fitzpatrick, "The Figure of Captivity: The Cultural Work of the Puritan Captivity Narrative," American Literary History, Vol. 3, No. 1: Spring, 1991, pp. 1-26 Hannah states in her narrative that her French family threatened to have her sent to France, where she would be burned as a heretic, but Hannah continued to refuse to convert, arguing with the "Nuns, Priests, and Friars" whom she met at church, using quotations from scripture. Hannah was forced to attend mass regularly until her mistress decided that she was not going to convert, and thereafter did not require her to go to church.
During her stay in Quebec, Hannah encountered other English prisoners including Edward Tyng and John Alden III (son of John Alden Jr.). Another English captive, 12-year-old Margaret Gould Stilson, was also a servant in the same household. Eventually she was forbidden contact with other English captives except for Margaret Stilson.
Return to New England In November 1695, Matthew Cary went to Quebec under the auspices of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, with "Permission and Passport given by Count Frontenac," Governor General of New France, to bring back English people held there as prisoners, by boat to Boston and New York. In exchange, "neer a hundred prisoners" held by English authorities were being returned to Canada. The list of 22 English captives redeemed from "Qubek" by Matthew Cary in October 1695 includes "Johana Swarton of York" and her son "Jesp'r Swarton, boy of Cascow," as well as Margaret Stilson.Johnston, John. A History of the Towns of Bristol and Bremen in the State of Maine, Including the Pemaquid Settlement. Joel Munsell, 1873. Her daughter, "Mary Swarton, gerl of Cascow," is on the list of "thos remaining Still in the hands of the french at Canada."Trask, William B. "Instructions to Matthew Cary about Bringing Prisoners from Canada; Information Obtained by Him in Quebec, and Lists of Prisoners Redeemed and Left in Canada -- 1695." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. Vol. 24, 1870"Names of English Captives Ransomed from Quebeck by Matthew Cary, in October, 1695," New England Historical and Genealogical Registers, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Samuel G. Drake, Publisher, Š1847 Vol. 1-50, Jan 1852Carroll, Lorrayne. "'My Outward Man': The Curious Case of Hannah Swarton." Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, edited by Michael L. LaBlanc, vol. 82, Gale, 2002. Gale Literature Resource Center. Accessed 6 July 2022. Originally published in Early American Literature, vol. 31, no. 1, Winter 1996, pp. 45-73. "Hannah Swarton widdow" is recorded as being "admitted to our communion" at the First Church in Beverly, MassachusettsFirst Church in Beverly, founded in 1667, Beverly, Mass. Beverly Public Library, Beverly, Mass., accessed July 9, 2022 on 15 November 1695. She is listed as "Wid. [widow] Swarton" among the "Brethren and Sisters of Beverly Church" on September 13, 1705.
Hannah's daughter Mary Swarton chose to remain in Canada, where she had already converted to Catholicism, had been re-baptized on 20 February 1695, and was renamed "Marie Souart, daughter of the late Jean Souart and Anne Souart." In 1697 she married Jean Lehait (John Lahey), an Irishman and also a former captive, and became a French citizen in May, 1710. Mary lived for the rest of her life in Montreal.
Narrative After she and her son Jasper returned to New England in November 1695, Hannah Swarton gave an account of her captivity (possibly dictated), in the form of a narrative that was published in 1697 by Cotton Mather. Swarton's story was heavily embellished by Mather, who added numerous biblical references, but many of the details of her experiences appear authentic.